Extremism: What is Evil?

I walk down the hallway all dressed in black and carrying multiple weapons on me in a child care building. I come to a large room with 25 children it. As I enter the room there is a woman standing a few feet away from the door with her back to me. I slowly walk toward her, pull out a 9mm pistol and in full view of the children, I put three rounds into her; she is dead before she hits the ground. Am I Evil?

I grow up in a ghetto, the dirtiest, poorest, and most rundown part of the city, let alone the country that is so poor that children by the thousands die from starvation. I am a lucky one though, I survive and I grow up to manhood. I am so disgusted with the state that my country is forced to live in I become very political, hoping to change things for the better. Throughout the years, my party helps the needy and starts to build roads, railways, grow business, attract investors, and generally make life better for the common people. Near the end of my career, my country is one of the most powerful in the world, am I Evil?

In the last two post of my Extremism series, I have shown both of the two most popular religions and what happens when Extremism is used within them, people die, sometimes thousands and millions and to me, that is one of the most Evil things in this world, killing in the name of belief. The question though is, What is Evil and am I also Evil?

To most people I know, I am a fairly normal nerdy guy with a wife, house, cars, bills, job and most things associated with a normal productive human being. To the conservative orthodoxy in the big three, I am Satan incarnate (and have been called that many times) for both my religion and sexuality. Being a Witch will have me stoned in the village square and having male lovers as a Bisexual and female lovers outside of marriage, will also have me stoned to death. Religion and Sexuality are deal breakers in some societies, thankfully ours is becoming more accepting of people who are different, though there are still many milestones to go, but we don’t (for the most part) kill those that are different anymore, but are we still Evil and worthy of death?

Perception of what is Evil seems to be the determining factor. In the first example, I certainly appear to be Evil, as who would kill a woman in front of 25 kids, such a horrific act in front of the innocent. Would it help to know that I am a member of a seal team liberating a classroom full of kids from a terrorist assault and the woman has an AK-47 holding the kids hostage? I am no longer Evil, but a Hero, yes? The perception has changed and so have the evilness of the act. In the second example, my name is Adolf Hitler, such an Evil man and the SS an Evil institution, but he did improve the conditions for the regular people for a while and he did pull Germany up from a broken and one of the poorest nations in Europe to one that almost ruled the continent. His Methods were so Evil and Horrific, but in his mind, he was doing what he believed was best for Germany. Perception of our actions make the actions good or evil.

In Wicca there are rituals and spells that on the surface are Evil, spells for Binding and for Banishment, but are these acts Evil or Good? No spell used against another will work unless they are a willing partner to the ritual (unfortunately Hollywood as yet to grasp this concept and still has us as the bad guys, but there is always a need for a villain I guess). An example would be someone wishing help to kick the smoking habit, a Wiccan may use a Binding spell on the other person to help them resist the urge to light up or to use a Banishment spell to banish all thoughts of lighting up as well. In this way, modern perception is that smoking is bad and so using these spells is a good thing.

We each must decide what is Evil, not only for ourselves, but as a society for the good of a diverse group of people, Extremism must be fought and defeated if all are to live as best we can and as morally as we can in this life, all of us equal, as it should be. Thoughts?